42 weapons and drug dealers arrested

The arms dealers were arrested after a police sting operation that used an undercover agent operating for a whole year in the cities Lod, Petah Tikva, Kfar Sava and Jaljulya.

Forty-two suspected drug and weapons dealers were arrested on Monday morning as part of a police sting operation that involved the use of an undercover agent. Twenty-seven of the forty-two arrested are residents of Lod. The police are still searching for 13 other suspects in the case.

The undercover agent operated for the past year in the cities of Lod, Petah Tikva, Kfar Sava and Jaljulya, and collected evidence on 54 criminals. In his undercover role, the agent purchased a number of different drugs from the suspects, among them cocaine, heroine, hashish, and marijuana. The agent also purchased a number of weapons from the suspects.

Police officer Dror Asraf reacted to the claim that the operation had been publicized in order to stifle criticism of the Lod police, on Monday morning on Army Radio. According to Asraf, "Israeli police do not do their jobs for public relations purposes, we do our work with utmost seriousness, and [we've been working on this case] for a long time now."

Asraf added, "The agent cracked the case after working on the case for a year, in which significant targets that influence crime in the area were picked out."

"The man was ready to purchase arms, in order to minimize the amount of weapons in circulation. The arms he purchased were automatic weapons and bombs that could have caused great damage," Asraf said.

There have been three murders in the city of Lod so far in this calendar month. On October 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting in Lod with Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Interior Minister Eli Yishai to deal with the recent spate of murders in the city.